Torch Relay - Forget the Sponsors...

There were only infrequent attempts to link Olympic sponsors or companies producing in China to the demonstrations, but a few Boycott signs showed up. In general activism related to the Beijing Olympics has not really targeted the major sponsors, though they are taking a financial hit potentially from the much lower-key presence they are now showing due to the protests and complaints. This means that advertising they had paid for by becoming sponsors is being abandoned to avoid raising the corporate profile in the eyes of activists – and in their cross hairs.

Hide and Seek - Olympic Torch Run San Francisco

More to come, as I am sitting in the airport waiting for my next flight, but a few initial thoughts on and shots of the torch run. First and foremost, the Tibetan and Darfur movements had shifted tactics for the San Francisco run, after the publicity in London and Paris began making the protesters look less than credible and their causes were falling prey to the images of them going after the designated torch runners. It is one thing to oppose China's activities or even to use the Olympics to draw attention to issues with China, quite another to physically threaten the athletes and individuals who have the once-in-a-lifetime chance to hold the Olympic flame. So in San Francisco, the targeting of the torch was more designed to impede movement rather than to extinguish the flame or steal the torch. However, even that goal was largely thwarted by the shifts and changes in the ultimate route the torch took. Rather than using any of the pre-arranged routes (which had been changing daily anyway), the torch went the opposite way, and uphill, making it difficult for the demonstrators, when they finally found out where it was, to get there. All told, in the initial survey of the pre-announced route and in chasing down the torch once it changed routes, I walked and ran some 11 miles, mostly up the San Francisco hills. Tiring work just to see the torch. Security around the torch was significant. Rather than blocking the route, they had a mobile blockade that would shut things down basically one or two blocks at a time so there was no easy location for the demonstrators to congregate to ambush the torch relay. In addition, there was a line of police with batons up both sides of the street as the torch passed through, keeping all demonstrators and spectators off the street. There were also motorcycle and bicycle police, federal security around the torch (joined by a few of the Chinese government security forces), and in general one could rarely see even the torch above all the security, much less the torch bearers. In the end, the torch relay faked out the final attempt to delay things, and took the exit just before the Golden Gate Bridge, heading to the airport quickly and quietly. The Chinese had paid several hundred pro-Chinese demonstrators to show up early and line the planned route, waving Chinese, Olympic and USA flags (pretty much only the pro-China demonstrators waved American flags; the anti-China protesters didn't, and that was quite noticeable. The Chinese are getting better at this sort of thing). One of the organizers of the Chinese said they had spent something like $30,000 on food and supplies, but I could not verify this (though there were boxes of bulk water, snacks and tissues with each clump of Chinese demonstrators). The Chinese also had a few quality English speakers with each clump who questioned the American pro-Tibet demonstrators and challenged them, usually starting off asking if they had even ever been to Tibet. And the Chinese paid for an air sign just like the anti-Chinese demonstrators, the Chinese sign, towed by a biplane, saying "Tibet will always be a part of China." Among the demonstrators that turned out was a large contingent of pro-Tibet activists, a moderate Safe Darfur contingent, and then Free Burma, Uighur independence, Pro-Taiwan and a few assorted others. Not a single Falun Gong that I saw. There was more serious security incident, when pro-Tibet activists blocked a bus carrying Olympic torch bearers and Chinese security. During the evacuation of those on the bus, the protesters jumped on the bus, smashing the the windshield, and spray painting "Free Tibet" on one side. Aside from that, there were a couple of scuffles between pro- and Anti-China activists, and a few tossed water balloons at the torch. A few pictures below, more later.

One of the youngest pro-China demonstrators. The Mickey ears help emphasize that the pro-China contingent was not anti-American (many waved American flags with their Chinese flags). This was a key part of their PR plan.
The largest number of demonstrators were pro-Tibet, but only a few ever made it up to the actual torch route, most ending up staying down on the initially planned route.
Security cordon was so thick that at times you could barely see the torch, much less the runners. It sort of defeats the whole purpose, and there was a conspicuous absence of any sign of the Olympic sponsors, who really didnt want to be caught up in the potential PR nightmare.
It doesnt really rhyme, but this was the most common chant.
The Olympic flame - what the day was supposed to be about.

Cultural Revolution Chic

China’s official Xinhua news agency has run an article, reprinted in the English language China Daily and the People's Daily, discussing the merits and problems of one of the latest in Cultural Revolution Chic theme restaurants in Beijing, the Red Flag Fluttering, in the Daxing district of Beijing.

Now, Red Flag Fluttering has the requisite Cultural Revolution decor, highlighting Workers, Peasants and Soldiers, propaganda posters, and Mao portraits, and has a nightly song-and-dance routine playing off of the music and shows of the Cultural Revolution period. The article discusses some of the social controversy over the restaurant, and its treatment of the Cultural Revolution, with some criticizing the restaurant for making light of a difficult and terrible time, and others enjoying the memories.

When I saw the article, two things struck me. First, Red Flag Waving seems to be a knock-off of The East Is Red, which is located east of Beijing in Dongwuhuan. I visited East Is Red back in July 2007, and what a show it was. The Cultural Revolution meets Andrew Lloyd Weber, complete with keyboard and rifle-waving girls in drab. One wall even had one of those famous red famous tractors busted through the brick, and the performers mounted the disused vehicle to create a still-life that may as well have been a propaganda poster scene. No pictures allowed there, but I have one below, and there is a tiny YouTube snippet as well, though it isn't mine.

But aside from thinking that Red Flag Waving is just a knock-off of the always-packed East Is Red (showcasing the entrepreneurial spirit of the Chinese, ready to fly with whatever idea works to make a buck... or yuan), the most striking thing was the more open discussion of the Cultural Revolution. The current leadership is the CR generation. They were the sent down students, and they are now exerting their influence and power across the nation. They are also flirting with a more open discussion of just what happened during the CR, of the failure of the Chinese leadership (and the Party itself), and the significant damage all of this caused.

That is allowing open criticism, and that is, in some ways, good and cathartic for the Chinese. Living with pent-up anger and frustration at the delays and damage of the CR certainly affects several of my Chinese acquaintances, some of whom more recently have begun talking about the CR time (and not without some twinge of pain in their voices). One recounted how their teachers were locked up, and some of the older teachers, so confused and upset about what was happening, simply beat themselves to death by steadily pounding their own heads into the concrete wall of their school where they had been locked up. Another complained about the delay in education, and bemoaned the problems the CR caused for China's development as a whole.

But as the Xinhua article notes, not everyone is ready to talk about the CR, or at least not openly. And certainly not everyone is prepared to let it go, to take a few liberties with the past and revive some of the perhaps fond memories there were. And there seems to have been some. At East Is Red, the audience of 40- and 50-somethings sing along lustily with the CR songs, waving their red flags and raising their beers. And there was a sense of Chinese doing their own thing, of self reliance and national mobilization that is so anathema to the current self-focused race to economic wealth.

So the question I have is – of the CR becomes more acceptable to talk about (and exploit for economic gain), then perhaps we are less than a generation away from the ability of the Chinese to address Tiananmen Square as well...

A snippet of video from the show at The East Is Red, from YouTube.

Kim Jong il Visits Unit 776... Again

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il made two visits to military sites in recent days, stopping by a company of KPA Unit 350 on April 5 and visiting a recruit training subunit of KPA Unit 776 on April 6. These are Kim's first public appearances in nearly a month, and the first time Kim has visited a military facility since mid-February.

South Korean media is highlighting the visit both because it is Kim's first appearance in a month, and because it comes amid heightened political tensions between the North and South. In addition to finally opening the taps on the vitriolic rhetoric condemning South Korea’s new president Lee Myung Bak, North Korea has also revived the threats of turning Seoul to ash (apparently an evolution from the old "Sea of Fire" warning), flown sorties with its old MiG 21s, and started posturing in the East Sea (both warning of naval clashes and testing surface to ship missiles).

But there is another element of the visit that still has me wondering. What is with all the visits to Unit 776? Normally, North Korean media simply mixes up the numbers – and there is not necessarily a clear correlation between the number printed in the media and any real unit number. But Kim has visited some element of Unit 776 now in December 2007, January, February and now April – four visits to the same unit designation. As I noted back in February, Kim’s visits to 776 may have something to do with Jagang Province (where North Korea’s suspected Uranium enrichment facility is located).

With a deal between Washington and Pyongyang in the final stages of negotiation on North Korea's listing of nuclear facilities, perhaps Kim is making sure things are cleaned up and ready up north for inspection after listing.

Or maybe it has nothing to do with the nuclear facilities at all. But the repetition of unit 776 does not seem to me to be a random event.

Secret Photo Reveals What Really Happened in Tibet